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It’s Friday already? This week went by so fast. It helped that it was only four days and I was busy trying some new things in my classroom.

The first big change was my math rotations. I talked about them earlier this week and I’m still happy with them. The biggest difference in my new rotations was not having a whole class lesson. I now teach the daily lesson in small groups and it is working out so much better. I can slow the lesson down for some kids and speed it up for others. Why didn’t I ever think of this before? The three rotations are: meet with teacher, paper/pencil and games/manipulatives. I was inspired by some posts on another blog: www.3rdgradethoughts.com.

Another change was the space in some of my cabinets. I posted last week that I was participating in The Clutter-Free Classroom Project. This week the assignment was to streamline our teacher resources and create an organized place to store them.

I am so fortunate to have a bunch of cabinets in my room, but sometimes that can be a bad thing. I end up holding on to books and papers because I have the room to store them. This week I went through all my books and got rid of about half.

My philosophy was: If I haven’t used it in the last two years, get rid of it.

I laughed because I put them all in the teacher’s lounge at 8:00 A.M. and by lunchtime they were almost all gone. I wonder how many of the teachers that took books will end up putting their new treasures in a closet and forgetting about them just like me?

Here are some before and after shots of the cabinets. There are not big changes, but I can tell there is a lot more space available for new books!

The Cabinets Before

The Cabinets After

The cabinets and math rotations were different organizational changes, but both made me feel like a better teacher. If you are interested in joining The Clutter-Free Challenge, click below and start organizing!

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2 thoughts on “A Busy Week”

Thank you for voicing my thoughts! I too, am constantly reviewing my procedures, and moving to no whole group lesson. I also fee freedom and excitement in these small but great changes. Good luck with the new groups. Please update the ongoing results.